Amazon also offers a $150 Echo Plus that is no match, soundwise, for the Sonos One. Worthy Sonos rivals include Apple’s $299 HomePod and the $399 Google Home Max, especially if you already like the media and voice-assistant services of those companies, or are possibly creeped out by Amazon’s mixed record on safeguarding privacy. The Sonos One is plenty strong for background music (if not a dance party) and can be paired more powerfully as stereo speakers if you are willing to devote two units to a single room. If you’re starting fresh and forgoing the receiver and amplifier of a traditional setup, we still recommend Sonos speakers as the benchmark for price, features, and sound quality, starting with the Sonos One smart speaker, which includes Alexa voice controls. Add a $349 Sonos Connect to your stereo, and it will be able to stream not only from the Internet but also wirelessly to Sonos speakers around the house. In recent years, Sonos has positioned itself as a kind of Switzerland of smart speakers that work well with the gamut of smartphones and streaming services. The real innovation was cleverly networked multiroom systems that play any song anywhere in the home. The Santa Barbara–based trendsetter upended the home speaker industry over the last decade not with better sound in the den, though the company’s $199 Sonos One and $499 Play:5 speakers are a good value. Sonos can teach your stereo even more digital-music tricks. There is a 30-day free trial to let you see if you can tell the difference. Tidal HiFi Tidal differentiates itself with higher-quality streaming at $19.99/month. Services work across most devices, including Apple and Android, for listening at home, in the car, or on the go with your smartphone. Standard pricing for these streaming services is $9.99/month unless otherwise noted, with student, family (up to six people), and annual discounts usually available. Sonos One The flagship Sonos smart speaker with Alexa voice controls and superior sound, priced at $199.Google Home Max Google’s $399, higher-end smart speaker with “Ok, Google” voice controls.Siri voice controls with tight Apple Music integration. HomePod from Apple Exceptional sound quality at its $299 price.Amazon’s $150 Echo Plus has more-sensitive mics and better sound. Echo Dot from Amazon A $50 “hockey puck” with Alexa voice controls and line-out to connect to better speakers.Yes, there’s nothing like the ritual of anticipation when the turntable needle drops into the groove, but wait until you can listen to anything you want at voice command, along with high-quality original audio shows and playlists, plus podcasts and Internet radio. Last year, three-quarters of the music industry’s income in the United States came from Apple Music, Spotify, and other streaming services like Amazon Music, YouTube Music, and Pandora.Įven the $50 Echo Dot from Amazon, plugged in to your stereo’s line-in and connected to your home Wi-Fi, will enable you to tell your enhanced hi-fi system, “Alexa, play WQXR radio” to pick up the New York City classical station from the Internet, or ask, “Alexa, what’s the latest news from NPR?” (Consider the $49 Google Home Mini instead of the Echo Dot if you are already using Google media services like YouTube Music, or are accustomed to “Ok, Google” voice commands.) Sign up for one of the free trials of a streaming service, and experience the Internet-delivered convenience that has virtually destroyed music sales. Sales of vinyl managed to grow last year and could soon exceed CD sales, but it’s a retro exception that proves the rule: The convenience of streaming any song from anywhere with an Internet connection-”Alexa, play Motown hits”-has largely killed sales worldwide of records, CDs, and even music downloads. If you love music in your life, you owe it to yourself to try one of the streaming services if you haven’t already.
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